The HSBC files: what we know so far

Repercussions of biggest leak of confidential banking data ever ripple around the world as governments pledge to pursue alleged tax evaders and former HSBC executives and tax officials face intense scrutiny

The leaked HSBC files have revealed details of some 30,000 accounts holding almost £78bn of assets, with bundles of untraceable cash being paid out to clients.
Photograph: Frederic Stevens/Getty

• On Monday, the Guardian, the BBC, Le Monde and 50 other media outlets reveal that HSBC’s Swiss banking arm helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets, doling out bundles of untraceable cash and advising clients on how to circumvent domestic tax authorities. The HSBC files consist of thousands of pages made available via the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Covering the period 2005-07, they amount to the biggest banking leak in history, shedding light on some 30,000 accounts holding almost $120bn (£78bn) of assets. Many of the accounts belonged to prominent figures in business, film, music and sport and the heads of royal families.

• On Tuesday, the political firestorm began as the UK Treasury minister David Gauke faced hostile questioning from MPs to defend the government’s efforts to clamp down on tax evasions. Outside the UK, calls mounted for investigations into HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary.

• HSBC was led during the period covered in the files by Stephen Green – now Lord Green – who served as the global bank’s chief executive, then group chairman, until 2010, when he left to become a trade minister in the House of Lords for David Cameron’s new government.

• In five years HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Britain’s tax authority, used the data to bring only one prosecution. France, Belgium, Spain, the US and Argentina have launched legal proceedings against HSBC and its high net-worth clients. So far, £135m has been recovered from HSBC clients in the UK. France has recovered £188m in taxes and fines from a list of 3,000 clients and Spain has recovered £220m, also from 3,000 clients. Australia said it had recovered more than A$30m (£15m) over the past five years.

• HMRC failed to warn that there was serious evidence of misconduct at HSBC’s Swiss arm despite being asked to vet Green over his suitability to become minister. HMRC had received a disc in 2010 with 6,000 names “all ripe for investigation”, David Hartnett told MPs on the Treasury select committee in 2011. Then head of tax at HMRC, Hartnett went on to work for HSBC as a consultant following his retirement two years after the data was handed over.

• The leaked files reveal the identities of donors to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation with HSBC accounts in the tax haven, including Jeffrey Epstein, the hedge fund manager and convicted sex offender.

Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton speak during a student conference for the Clinton Global Initiative University in March. Photograph: Matt York/AP

The revelations have raised questions over the former secretary of state’s campaigning focus on wealth inequality in light of the close relationships she and her husband have nurtured with some of the world’s richest individuals.

• On Wednesday, the Guardian reported that HSBC in Switzerland aggressively marketed tax-avoidance strategies to its wealthy clients. It proactively contacted clients in 2005 to suggest ways to avoid a new tax levied on the Swiss savings accounts of EU citizens, a measure brought in through a treaty between Switzerland and the EU to tackle secret offshore accounts.

Their ranks include Zac Goldsmith,MP for Richmond Park,plus his brother, the financier Ben Goldsmith,anda Swiss resident, the German-born car company heir Georg von Opel, who has donated six-figure sums in the past two years.

• In a rowdy session of prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, accused David Cameron of acting as a “dodgy prime minister” after he repeatedly failed in the House of Commons to say whether he had discussed tax avoidance at HSBC with Green before appointing him as trade minister in 2011.